Lemon Tree Hotels Chairman and Managing Director Patanjali Keswani is confident of increasing the occupancy and average rates and also maintaining the hotel's price structure in this financial year (FY24). "We are very confident we will increase our occupancy and our average rates and maintain our price structure in this coming year. This means an expansion in margin and an absolute expansion in the amount of EBITDA we generate," the hotel chain’s top boss said in an interaction with CNBC-TV18 on Thursday, June 1.

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Keswani also said the hotel's rate has gone up significantly from pre-COVID levels. "So post COVID, we decided that we would revise and we reviewed… then we said we would revise our pricing, and we did it by about 20 percent. In fact, overall, on a pre- to post-COVID basis, our pricing is up about 30 percent," he noted.

The Lemon Tree Hotels chairman added: "That's not really so much, because that's three years, and there has been significant inflation. So, the bottomline is at current pricing levels and current occupancy levels, I typically expect a return of capital, at least on the deployed capital of Lemon Tree of about 15-16 percent. And I'm very sure that within the next year, it will increase to about 20-22 percent in terms of return on capital, which means that pricing and occupancy will go up."

He also said that the boom period will be next year and the following year.

Standalone quarterly numbers:

Net sales at Rs 95.24 crore in March 2023, up 156.2 percent from Rs 37.17 crore in March 2022.

Quarterly net profit at Rs 30.21 crore in March 2023, up 1,248.51 percent from Rs 2.63 crore in March 2022.

EBITDA came in at Rs 58.70 crore in March 2023, up 383.13 percent from Rs 12.15 crore in March 2022.

EPS increased to Rs 0.38 in March 2023 from Rs 0.03 in March 2022.

Shares of Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd settled 1.72 percent lower at Rs 94.30 apiece in Thursday's trade. The stock fell 3 percent in the last five trading sessions, while it rose 12 percent on a year-to-date basis.

First Published:Jun 1, 2023 7:13 PM IST